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From David Puttnam, “The Producer” in The Movie Business Book (edited by Jason E. Squire, Fireside, copyright 1992) “A fundamental task of a producer is to make the project as risk-adverse as possible.” “Money spent wisely in pre-production is an investment.” “My advice in budgeting (and scheduling) is: Don’t lie to yourself.” “Once a film has started shooting, the pivotal relationship is between the producer and director.” “It is demoralizing for a director to think that the producer has a hidden agenda, just as it is demoralizing for a producer to believe the studio has another agenda altogether.” “The core working group from a producer’s perspective during shooting is the production manager, first assistant director and the production accountant.” “The value of choosing to work on location is realism. Another important element, especially in exotic locations, is the ability to shoot indigenous people rather than shipping in extras.” “Previews are immensely valuable.” From Sydney Pollack, “The Director” “There’s no magic to running a set. It is a matter of choosing professional craftsmen with compatible personalities. You try to strike a reasonable balance between being relatively comfortable and relatively tense.” “One of the most important aspects of making a movie is staying in shape, keeping your stamina up for the sheer physical rigors of shooting.” From Mel Brooks, “My Movies, the Collision of Art and Money” “I learned a little about movie financing from “The Producers” because I had a participation in the movie, and it was important for me to learn why I wasn’t getting any money for my participation.” “My advice for the best way to break into the business is to write…If a writer is talented, his talent can open the door to directing.” “What is the toughest think about making film? Putting in the little holes.” From Joan Micklin Silver, “The Writer-Director” “The director must decide whether new ideas or extra takes are worth it and whether there is time and money to try them.” “The advice I have for women in film is to toughen up and leave your sensitivities at the back door.” “Writing and making short films is a good way to break into the industry; those who persist will probably prevail.” From Henry Jaglom, “The Independent Filmmaker” “Orson Welles once said to me at lunch, ‘The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.’” “Do not accept anyone’s word that something is impossible; it’s the limitation of the person telling you that makes them say it can’t be done.” “To make a movie, you need as much money as you’ve got, not a penny more. If it’s just $20,000 you can raise, take a video camera and go make a movie. Someone will see it and you’ll be on your way. Don’t talk about it, do it.” From David Sosna “The First Assistant Director” “The failure of American management...to motivate by passing on responsibility and authority to lower levels in the chain is part of our country’s failures in the workplace...” “Assistant Directors spend time dealing with clear-cut logical issues. For the most part, we don’t deal with subtleties, nuance, creative, nondetermanistic issues.” From Philip Gaines and David J. Rhodes’ Hollywood on $5,000, $10,000 or $25,000 a Day (copyright Philip Gaines and David J. Rhodes, Silman-James Press, 1994) “Film production is labor intensive, and labor is the easiest thing to be had for zero dollars.” “Once the script is done, what the writer imagined does not matter at all. What matters is how the director and producer imagine the movie.” “Rules to Live By: 1) Dramas are preferable to comedies. 2) Contemporary settings are preferable to period settings. 3) Five Day Players are preferable to adding a single actor on a Picture deal. 4) One location is preferable to Two. 5) Exteriors are preferable to Interiors. 6) A location that works for Camera is preferable to a location that works for Sound. 7) Silent scenes are preferable to talking ones. 8) Talking about shipwrecks is preferable to shooting shipwrecks. 9) Two people talking in a scene is preferable to there (or four or five, etc.) people talking with three (or four or five, etc.) people who talk elsewhere in the movie sitting around and listening to them. 10) The unexpected is preferable to the expected. 11) Adults are preferable to children, who need to be accompanied by a guardian, even if you are making a G-rated picture. 12) Last and least, rather, less, which is more.” From Christine Vachon’s Shooting to Kill (Christine Vachon with David Edelstein, copyright Spike, Avon, 1998) “A low budget movie is a crisis waiting to happen.” “The more you know about the history of film, the better you can imagine the possibilities.” “I always assemble three budgets: the dream budget, the less-than-dream budget, and the bad-dream budget.” “One way to deal with a low budget is to have parity across the board.” “Actors are the single most important element in a film….Get them whatever they need, as long as it’s legal.” On distribution – “What can happen to your finished, unaffiliated (independent) film? 1) It’s bought by a big or mid-sized distributor… 2) It’s picked up for not much money… 3) It has a life on the festival circuit… 4) It receives no domestic theatrical release but has foreign sales and shows up on cable and cassette or laserdisc (now DVD). 5) It’s used as a doorstop. From director Wim Wenders – On Hollywood’s Oscars: “I think there should be a persistence award because that’s what it’s all about” From Mark Litwak’s Reel Power (copyright Mark Litwak, Plume, 1986) “Making a film is like going to war.” --Marty Bregman, Producer “…( a producer is) something between being a coach and a dictator and sometimes a baby-sitter.” --Walter Coblenz, Producer “Being a producer is like being a whore.” --Jon Avnet, Producer/Director “Anytime I see someone who comes into this business who is smart and talented…and likes to go to lunch and dinner and party, I know he has failed already. He hasn’t got a prayer. Because someone like me is just going to run over him.” --Don Simpson (RIP), Producer & Ex-chairman, Sony Studios “If someone is good and they’re willing to stick around and fight the battles, they will win in the end.” --Debra Greenfield, Production Executive From David Mamet’s South of the Northeast Kingdom Modern, statistical life rewards the ability to choose the approved among four alternative answers. True intelligence, on the other hand – that intelligence which approaches wisdom, consists of the ability to form the question.” From Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat “The jobs are going to where the best-educated workforce is with the most competetive infrastructure and environment for creativity and supportive government. It is inevitable... This may or may not be the countries that led the Industrial Revolution.” “Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.” -Albert Einstein |
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